The tournament continues the next day as the second round of the middle stage began, for martial art and knowledge exchange, the pairing have been made for both the winners bracket and the losers bracket, the Dungeons Crawl players have also ventured into the pod, there mission for today is search and rescue.
They are to search for a number of people scattered all over the dungeons in an unknown location and rescue them, these people are held hostage by the deadly creatures populating the dungeons and their mission is to kill these creatures and save at least one hostage.
These hostages are held in different areas in the dungeons with different creatures guarding them, a team is to kill these creatures and rescue at least one of the hostages, it's not a must for them to kill the creatures but the main quest of the mission is to rescue at least one hostage which might very well be impossible without killing the creatures first.
They would also encounter countless creatures on their way before finding the hostages.
The dungeons crawl event has really gotten so many people interest that they've completely ignored other events just to spectate the dungeons crawl, only a few are spectating other events.
Talent Exhibition has also started and Emmy would be participating today, it would be his turn in less than an hour, so he sat with Sunny among other participants, some of them are not participating today, they're just there to spectate as they have displayed their skills yesterday.
Sunny is also here because of Emmy who had his eyes fixed on one of the display screen showing the football match taking place between Lindsay Academy and a very fierce school from Nara City.
The score is currently 2-0 and Lindsay Academy is losing and their Coach seems to be in a panic as his leg didn't stay in one place, he kept yelling at his players and his eyes moves around the players he had in substitution.
"The Principal must be putting pressure on him."
Emmy thought.
---
On the field itself, the coach has sweat running down his forehead, the School Principal have just called him that he must not lost the match at all cost, so far, Lindsay Academy have been doing well in all other events and this is just the round 16 of the football event and the team are just playing their second match. The Principal have made it clear that they must win it at all cost.
"What to do, what to do."
He didn't know what to do, he had been training these students for the past few months just for this event, and now they're getting defeated. All the best players in his team are on the field, he's the coach of these students so he knew what they can do, he knew they can't do more than what they're currently doing on the field, but it was as if he hadn't trained them enough.
Russ, Karim and Elliott are doing their best at the front to at least score a goal, John, Joe and Emaxx are also holding the midfield, he had substitute Bruce, the keeper who conceded the two goals and brought Nathaniel in, but still, it isn't enough, the opponent are putting pressure on them.
He look at the players he had in substitution but he couldn't pinpoint anybody who could do better than those on the field.
And the first half ended after a few minutes. The coach dejectedly applaud his players as they jog out of the field. They move to the changing room where they're to make a discussion during the break.
The coach started walking slowly around the room without saying anything as his players sat with fear, the silence was suffocating them and it seems like the coach is angry at the performance, his face said it all.
Karim cleared his throat and speaks, breaking the silence.
"hmm coach, we did our best, all our effort were being obliterated by their clear mind and teamwork, coach, I'm sure that if you give us a great analysis, we might be able to do a come back in the second half. We just need to understand their play."
Karim, the captain stated.
"You said, 'we might be able to do a come back,' means you are not even sure. Well you guys truly did your best and I wouldn't expect much from you but I want you all to know that the Principal have called and he made it clear that we must win the match at all cost. I think you all know what that means."
They all gasped as they heard that statement.
"He said other teams are doing well in other events and we must not be the first to get eliminated. I'll give you the analysis of the first half and make a new formation."
A white drawing board appeared at the front of the room and a holographic display of the first half came into play, the coach then started doing the analysis.
The analysis ended after five minutes, taking half of the break time, he then started giving a new formation.
"We used 4-3-3 formation in the first half but we'll be changing it now, it seems Nathaniel is handling their balls so we should free the defense line and shift our focus to the front.
Now, we'll be going with 3-5-2 formation, Nate, Hugo and Kelly will remain at the back while Chiesa will come out for Zaha who will support them at the midfield, the three midfielders with Zaha will remain at the midfield, Russ and Elliott will still maintain their position at the front while Karim will come out for Arthur who will also go to the midfield, making it five midfielders."
They all stare at the coach like something is wrong with him at the mention of Karim removal. The captain had been the one putting much pressure on the opponent defenders with the most shot on target coming from him, it could even be said that Karim and Joe are the main players in the team with the former not giving any chance to score away while the later is the ball producer at the midfield, Joe is like a middleman who share the ball among his teammates.
Although, the coach didn't remove Joe but they all thought Karim removal is inappropriate, but they did not dare to voice it out.
"Zaha and Arthur, you guys are to support Joe while he create an opening for Russ and Elliott at the front,....."
He continue.
---
The second half began and the substitution was made as planned on Lindsay Academy side, their opponent also made one substitution.
{Lindsay Academy coach made a very confusing substitution here, by withdrawing Karim, the team captain for Arthur who has gone to the midfield}
{Karim has been a constant threat to their opponent at the front and so far, he had made 0.58 of the total 0.86 expected goals they had, I hope the coach know what he's doing here}
He run out of the field and approach the coach dejectedly, he must have done something wrong for the coach to remove him or maybe the coach had other plan.
That's all he could think of.
The said coach applaud him as he got out of the field, then told him to move closer as he whisper something into his ear.
"You know where the boy is, right?"
The coach asked.
"Do you mean Emmy?"
Karim replied.
"Go look for him, now."
The coach said, in a command tone.
"But coach, you didn't even add him to the squad list which might attract trouble from the officials and also, he had registered for the Talent Exhibition event and I'm sure that he would've made his first performance which means he can't participate in other events after his first performance."
Karim explained with a hint of anger in his voice, he was angry at the coach, why is he looking for Emmy now when they're facing defeat, he had persuaded the coach countless times to add the boy's name to the list before submitting it but the coach kept asking him for the video of the matches the boy have played, and now he's looking for him. What is he thinking?
'He didn't even add his name to the submitted list.'
Wait, what if the coach added Emmy's name without making Karim aware of it, after all the coach didn't show him the list before submitting it and he remembered clearly when his coach stated that 35 students is the maximum number for a team and now, they only have 33 here.
What if the coach had eventually added his name.
A hint of hope glimmer in Karim eyes.
"I'm sure he won't go for anything apart from football skills show in the Talent Exhibition event and all sport related show will be taking place in fifteen minutes time, which means he would be making his first performance in fifteen minutes time.
You must get there before that time."
The coach stated after checking his wristwatch.